The vineyard at Stargazers in Coatesville was planted in 1979; the winery opened in 1996.stargazersvineyard.com

Stargazers Vineyard in Pennsylvania's Chester County didn't get everything through this year's growing season. A late April frost zapped some of his crop.

But Dornfelder, one of his staples, did survive the frost and the searing hot summer. A red grape with German origins, it grows at Stargazers and a few other regional wineries. Owner John Weygandt builds a mid-November party around the early-ripening grape, and there was enough this year to guarantee that the event will take place again on Nov. 17. Call it their nouveau wine.

"The last few years we've actually only had enough to last from the middle of November until the end of the year," he said by phone Friday night. "But it's a tradition with us. It's a big event at the winery. I know n Germany it doesn't have much of a reputation, but it's just an easy-to-drink wine that ripens early enough to be drinkable that early. It's our answer to beaujolais.

"It's not particularly easy in the vineyard," he added. "I think for that reason you don't see more of it [being grown]."

Dornfelder produces a dry wine that's dark but lacking in tannins. "So it isn't suitable for barrel aging or long life. But it does go well with holiday fare, with turkey and the trimming." Weygandt said he grows it over a half-acre of his vineyard; the 15-year-old vines produce as much as a ton and a half of fruit in a good year.

He noted in his e-letter that his Petit Verdot and Gruner Veltliner did well this year, as opposed to his Chardonnay and something called Arneis, which replicates a Pinot Grigio. This was the first year that he expected his acre of Arneis vines to produce. Now he'll wait until 2013.

"As far as I know, we're the only one growing it," he said of the Arneis. "It's the white wine of the Piedmont, but you rarely see it outside of Italy. There's not a lot of it produced; the main grapes there are red grapes. We're just hoping that it will prove to be an alternative to Pinot Gris, which is difficult int he vineyard and there's this ocean of Pinot Grigio flowing from Italy. It's hard to be competitive. We gave up on Gris some years back, and if we weren't makers of sparkling wine we'd probably give up on Pinot Noir, too."